Lupin III: The Master File is a collection of materials related to the production of the Lupin III anime from 1971 to 1994. This includes character sheets, location maps, original sketches, music, poster scans, and plot summaries. An expanded edition of Master File was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 28, 2012.
Also in series
Reviews View More
Let me start by saying that Lupin III: The Master File isn't necessarily a game, per say.
It's more so a big archive over Lupin III's history, from 1971 to 1994.
With that being said, this archive is a really good one!
The UI in it gives off vibes of some computer software that you would see back in the 90's, and it gives off a cool nostalgia feeling. The music accompanying it is also pretty good, and some of it is even Lupin music, so that's nice!
Before you jump in to the main menu, you see a brand new piece of animation made just for this game. It's nothing too out of ordinary, but I appreciate the effort, and it's nicely animated to boot.
When you reach the main menu, you have a few options:
- Maps, which is where you find where episodes of the 1st 3 series of Lupin III took place in (although Part 1's are just scattered randomly on the map).
- Characters, where you're able to look at personal info of the main cast, the weapon each one of them uses, and look at a small clip montage of them. In the case of Fujiko and Zenigata, they even have a special option for them, which is admitelly hilarious and perverted, in Fujiko's case.
- Drawings, where you're able to look at various concept art of vehicles used in episodes, and you're also able to see some books from the manga.
- Theme Songs, where you can watch the openings and endings of the first 3 Lupin III Series.
- And finally Story Digests, which I'd call the most impressive one, as you're able to see the premises, staff, and even some stills (or even in some cases, a clip montage) of all of the episodes of Parts 1, 2 and 3, and also of all of the movies and TV Specials that were available at the time!
The amount of content this game has to offer makes it a dream for Lupin III fans such as myself!
Although, this all comes with a slight teensy weensy little drawback...
Everything, from the videos, to the concept art, is all extremely compressed.
For the videos, they only fill part of the screen, and never the entire thing. The same also applies for the concept art, and the lack of zoom options make it hard to read some of the written stuff, especially when you go to see some of the manga they have on there.
Addtionally, the Theme Songs section does not include 2 of the 4 openings and endings that were present in Part 2 of Lupin III, making that section kinda incomplete.
I get the feeling this mainly comes down to size limitations, and that the people behind this archive, the company Mizuki, got a bit too ambitious with how much they wanted to showcase, so some cutbacks were necessary.
Overall, in spite of some issues, this is a great archive for people who want to look at Lupin III's early history and get a great behind-the-scenes on all of the episodes and movies he had at that time!
It's more so a big archive over Lupin III's history, from 1971 to 1994.
With that being said, this archive is a really good one!
The UI in it gives off vibes of some computer software that you would see back in the 90's, and it gives off a cool nostalgia feeling. The music accompanying it is also pretty good, and some of it is even Lupin music, so that's nice!
Before you jump in to the main menu, you see a brand new piece of animation made just for this game. It's nothing too out of ordinary, but I appreciate the effort, and it's nicely animated to boot.
When you reach the main menu, you have a few options:
- Maps, which is where you find where episodes of the 1st 3 series of Lupin III took place in (although Part 1's are just scattered randomly on the map).
- Characters, where you're able to look at personal info of the main cast, the weapon each one of them uses, and look at a small clip montage of them. In the case of Fujiko and Zenigata, they even have a special option for them, which is admitelly hilarious and perverted, in Fujiko's case.
- Drawings, where you're able to look at various concept art of vehicles used in episodes, and you're also able to see some books from the manga.
- Theme Songs, where you can watch the openings and endings of the first 3 Lupin III Series.
- And finally Story Digests, which I'd call the most impressive one, as you're able to see the premises, staff, and even some stills (or even in some cases, a clip montage) of all of the episodes of Parts 1, 2 and 3, and also of all of the movies and TV Specials that were available at the time!
The amount of content this game has to offer makes it a dream for Lupin III fans such as myself!
Although, this all comes with a slight teensy weensy little drawback...
Everything, from the videos, to the concept art, is all extremely compressed.
For the videos, they only fill part of the screen, and never the entire thing. The same also applies for the concept art, and the lack of zoom options make it hard to read some of the written stuff, especially when you go to see some of the manga they have on there.
Addtionally, the Theme Songs section does not include 2 of the 4 openings and endings that were present in Part 2 of Lupin III, making that section kinda incomplete.
I get the feeling this mainly comes down to size limitations, and that the people behind this archive, the company Mizuki, got a bit too ambitious with how much they wanted to showcase, so some cutbacks were necessary.
Overall, in spite of some issues, this is a great archive for people who want to look at Lupin III's early history and get a great behind-the-scenes on all of the episodes and movies he had at that time!